Court jails teacher for colleague rape claim

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A German court sentenced a teacher to more than five years in prison on Friday for falsely accusing her colleague of rape. The wrongly accused man spent five years behind bars.

The teacher, named only as Heidi K., was sentenced to five years and six months by a court in Darmstadt for deprivation of liberty, by lying about the rape in 2002.

The 48-year-old saw her supposed attacker, Horst A., as a rival at the school where they taught, the court heard.

He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2002. Horst A. served his full sentence and was then excused by a court in 2011. He died a year later of heart failure in Saarland, where he was living off unemployment benefit.

The judge told Heidi K. that she had carried out an injustice on the man, but the teacher has stuck to her version of events.

Her defence lawyer called for the court to believe Heidi K's story. But state prosecutors asked for a sentence of seven-and-a-half years describing her as a “highly competent liar”.